Famous birthdays July 17; and: Free Minneapolis concert draws 100,000

What Minneapolis wouldn’t do to bring 100,000 people to Block E today.

Fans streamed downtown by bus, bike and foot — an estimated 100,000 of them — for a free Aquatennial concert by the huge ’90s alt-rock band the Smashing Pumpkins for the erstwhile annual Hennepin Block Party, on the then-empty block, on this day in 1998.

“People watching from every building, and parking ramps,” one fan wrote. “People hanging from the street signs. It was crazy.”

Among the throngs was at least one convicted killer, a 17-year-old who was nabbed after the show and returned to the state women’s prison in Shakopee.

Germans are downing steinsfull for their favorite celebrity’s birthday. David Hasselhoff — of “Baywatch” and that show with the talking car — is 65.

Actor Robert Romanus — Mike Damone in the 1982 movie ”Fast Times at Ridgemont High” — is 61. He was also Natalie’s boyfriend in the ’80s sitcom ”The Facts of Life.”

(Getty Images: Frazer Harrison)

Do You Love Lucy? This is her daughter (with Desi Arnaz), actress Lucie Arnaz, who is 66.

(Getty Images: Mike Coppola)

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, is 70.

(Getty Images: Chris Jackson)

Bassist Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is 68.

(Associated Press: Paul A. Hebert)

Best-selling romance and historical romance novelist LaVyrle Spencer of North Oaks is 73. The Romance Writers of America Hall of Famer’s first novel was developed into a 1989 TV movie “The Fulfillment of Mary Gray,” starring Cheryl Ladd, and “Morning Glory,” which Spencer wrote in 1989, was released as a major motion picture in 1993, starring Deborah Raffin and Christopher Reeve. She’s retired and shown at home in spring 2013.